Phase 1 investment to include 1 million-square-foot operation



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Kentucky State Seal

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*OFFICE OF GOVERNOR ANDY BESHEAR*

*COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY*








*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*




*Contact:*?

*Crystal Staley*
*502-545-3714*

*Brandon Mattingly
502-782-2006*






****************EnerVenue To Create 450 Full-Time Jobs With New $264 Million Manufacturing Facility in Shelby County****************

""""""""""""""""""""Phase 1 investment to include 1 million-square-foot operation""""""""""""""""""""

*FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 28, 2022) *? Today, Gov. Andy Beshear announced continued job creation within Kentucky?s manufacturing and clean energy sectors as EnerVenue, which builds metal-hydrogen batteries for stationary energy storage applications for utility-scale, commercial and residential use, will establish a new manufacturing facility in Shelby County, creating 450 full-time jobs with a $264 million Phase 1 investment with potential for further investment.

?Our skilled workforce and communities working together to foster continued growth have made the economic momentum the commonwealth is experiencing possible. For a company like EnerVenue to come in, invest and create jobs in Shelby County is an exciting next step for our manufacturing and energy storage sectors,? said Gov. Beshear. ?I want to thank the company?s leadership and the Shelby County community for making this project possible, and I look forward to the company?s success in Kentucky.?

For the initial phase of the project, EnerVenue will construct a new state-of-the-art 1 million-square-foot manufacturing facility on a 73-acre site located in Shelby County.

The location will become the company?s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant for its Energy Storage Vessels. All aspects of design and process validation, manufacturing and testing will be performed onsite. Across its domestic manufacturing sites, company leaders expect to invest in excess of $1 billion to expand to more than 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of annual capacity in subsequent phases.

?As customer interest in EnerVenue?s storage technology soars, we?re excited to significantly scale battery production with our new state-of-the-art gigafactory in Shelby County,? said Jorg Heinemann, CEO at EnerVenue. ?Following a nationwide vetting process, Kentucky emerged as the ideal fit to build our new facility. The state and county governments were committed to bringing manufacturing and clean energy jobs to the region, and we look forward to working with them as we build out operations.?

Founded in 2020, EnerVenue builds simple, safe and cost-efficient energy storage products. Based on technology proven by NASA over decades under the most extreme conditions, EnerVenue batteries, called Energy Storage Vessels, are refined and scaled for commercial and utility applications.?

EnerVenue?s investment contributes to Kentucky?s position as a national leader in manufacturing, an industry that employs approximately 250,000 Kentuckians across 5,000 operations. Administration-to-date, more than 550 new location and expansion projects within the industry are expected to create nearly 26,000 full-time jobs with over $18.6 billion in new investments.????

Shelby County Judge/Executive Dan Ison noted the job creation and industry diversification offered by EnerVenue?s announcement.??

?As judge/executive, I will continue to work hard for good balance in Shelby County. We are excited to have new industries and jobs coming to Shelby County,? said Judge Ison.?

Shelbyville Mayor H. Troy Ethington welcomed EnerVenue to the area.

?The City of Shelbyville is eager to welcome EnerVenue to Shelby County as a cutting-edge innovator in the clean energy sector,? said Mayor Ethington. ?The 450 jobs and multimillion-dollar investment during this initial phase with potential for further growth will benefit not only our community but those surrounding us as well. We are looking forward to creating a great working partnership with them in the future.? ?

President/CEO of Shelby County Industrial and Development Foundation Ray Leathers showed support for the project.??

?EnerVenue has to be the largest employer to ever enter Shelby County, and the largest building at 1 million-square-feet. It?s historic,? said Leathers.

Jack Bragg, president & CEO of Shelby Energy Cooperative, shared his excitement for EnerVenue?s decision to locate in Shelbyville.?

?Our entire team at Shelby Energy is excited to see this project locate in Shelby County, further diversifying our industry in the region, especially in the sector of renewable energy storage solutions,? Bragg said.

EnerVenue?s investment and planned job creation furthers recent economic momentum in the commonwealth, as the state builds back stronger from the effects of the pandemic.?

Since the beginning of his administration, Gov. Beshear has announced the creation of 43,700 full-time jobs and 838 private-sector new-location and expansion projects totaling $24.7 billion in announced investments.

The Governor has now secured the best two-year period in state history for economic growth.

In 2021, the commonwealth shattered every economic development record in the books. Private-sector new-location and expansion announcements included a record $11.2 billion in total planned investment and commitments to create a record 18,000-plus full-time jobs across the coming years.

That momentum continued strongly into 2022 with 248 new-location and expansion announcements totaling 16,000 full-time jobs behind nearly $10.5 billion in new investment.

The robust job creation has been accompanied by rising wages across the commonwealth. The average incentivized hourly wage in 2022 was $26.78 before benefits, the second-highest mark since 2010 and an 11.5% increase over the previous year.

Gov. Beshear also announced the two largest economic development projects in state history. In September 2021, Gov. Beshear and leaders from Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation celebrated [ [link removed] ] a transformative $5.8 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs in Hardin County. And in April 2022, the Governor was joined by leadership at Envision AESC to announce [ [link removed] ] a $2 billion investment that will create 2,000 jobs in Warren County. These announcements solidify Kentucky as the EV battery production capital of the United States.

Kentucky?s success has been noted by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, which have upgraded the state?s financial outlook to positive in recognition of the commonwealth?s surging economy.

Site Selection magazine placed Kentucky second nationwide and first in the South Central region for its annual Governor?s Cup ranking for 2022, which recognizes state-level economic success based on capital investments.

Gov. Beshear?s administration is projected to post the four highest years of budget surpluses in Kentucky history, and the state?s rainy day fund has a record balance of $2.7 billion.

Recently, Gov. Beshear announced a new ?Supply Kentucky [ [link removed] ]? initiative with the goal of boosting job growth, reducing costs and providing more security in the supply chains of our Kentucky companies.

The Governor also announced that Kentucky set the lowest annual unemployment rate in state history [ [link removed] ] for 2022 at 3.9%. This is the lowest rate seen since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting state unemployment rates in 1976.

To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in December preliminarily approved a 15-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based agreement can provide up to $10.3 million in tax incentives based on the company?s investment of $264 million and annual targets of:


* Creation and maintenance of 450 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 15 years; and
* Paying an average hourly wage and benefits that meet specified targets.

By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.

In addition, EnerVenue can receive resources from Kentucky?s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.

For more information on EnerVenue, visit enervenue.com [ [link removed] ].

A detailed community profile for Shelby County can be viewed here [ [link removed] ].

Information on Kentucky?s economic development efforts and programs is available at "CED.ky.gov" [ [link removed] ]. Fans of the Cabinet for Economic Development can also join the discussion at "facebook.com/CEDkygov" [ [link removed] ]", on Twitter ""@CEDkygov" [ [link removed] ]", Instagram ""@CEDkygov" [ [link removed] ]" and ""LinkedIn" [ [link removed] ].

Read about other key updates, actions and information from Gov. Beshear and his administration at?governor.ky.gov [ [link removed] ],?kycovid19.ky.gov [ [link removed] ]?and the Governor?s official social media accounts?Facebook [ [link removed] ],?Twitter [ [link removed] ]?and?YouTube [ [link removed] ].

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